Filed under: Euro, Plants/Manufacturing, Mercedes-Benz
What's German for "kickback"? Daimler workers broke Mercedes' for profit
A master mechanic and two clerks, among others, are being investigated for intentionally sabotaging Mercedes cars being built at the Sindelfingen factory. Allegedly, repair shops in the area that weren't part of the Daimler corporation were bribing workers with gifts, trips, and cash to alter the cars so that the repair shops could get the contracts to fix them.
The sabotage included scratching the cars, loosening clamps and bolts, as well as -- incredibly -- putting foreign liquids into brake lines. According to Suddeutsche Zeitung, the cars affected were C-, E-, and S-Class. The Stuttgart prosecutor's office estimates the costs to Mercedes in the many of millions, but the greatest irony is this: the workers under investigation were part of the quality control department.
[Source: Suddeutsche Zeitung via Benz Insider]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
waiownsyou 4:33PM (11/17/2008)
What's the irony? That's the perfect position in the quality control dept. - horrible quality.
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Assass1n 4:41PM (11/17/2008)
Thinking exact same thing. Anyway, this is horrible. Not only bad for MB, but think about the dangers of putting different fluids in the brake lines. People could have been killed, or even worse.
Assass1n 4:41PM (11/17/2008)
Thinking exact same thing. Anyway, this is horrible. Not only bad for MB, but think about the dangers of putting different fluids in the brake lines. People could have been killed, or even worse.
ambientFLIER 7:15PM (11/17/2008)
What's worse than being killed?
ConceptVBS 11:37AM (11/19/2008)
Yeah, whats worse than being killed? Burned maybe?
tekd 9:46PM (11/17/2008)
What's worse than death? Well I guess it depends on your personality but if your spinal cord is broken in the cervical region you could be paralyzed from the head down and unable to even speak. Then you'd be forced to communicate by blinking for the rest of your life.
It could be even worse since pain sensing nerves don't always run along with motor nerves, so you could still feel pain and itching. Imagine if you were burned pretty badly in the crash too.
If it were me I think I might very well rather be dead.
Kitko 4:39PM (11/17/2008)
Judging byt substandsrd Mercedes built quality and reliability, these folks must have been hard at work for the past 10 years and had their people in every assembly plant....
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Foose1397 4:39PM (11/17/2008)
Man......and everyone wonders why people hate dealing with any car companies. The crookedness starts from the factory floor
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Smegley 4:40PM (11/17/2008)
Bestechungsgeld.
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Daveman427 4:40PM (11/17/2008)
I wonder if the workers did other things like put the clutch pedals on loosely or put shifter boots on inside-out. Oh wait, Mercedes doesn't make cars with manual transmissions anymore! Silly Mercedes, people still like to drive cars that are fun!
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jinsei888 4:47PM (11/17/2008)
Money talks
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jimmy glick 4:48PM (11/17/2008)
My father bought an Audi 5000s back in the late 80's that was "sabotaged" at the factory in a similar way. Apparently workers at the assembly plant decided to play the ol' switcheroo with the fluids. That was his first and last Audi.
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James 4:48PM (11/17/2008)
As others said, depending on how long this has gone on, this may go a long way in explaining MB's horribly quality over the past decade or so.
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Max 6:48PM (11/17/2008)
Except that Mercedes cars were placed at the top in initial quality and customer satisfaction for the last decades.
The quality problems affected only a few models between 1999 and 2003, where parts made by separate suppliers were deficient.
Dan 10:04PM (11/18/2008)
Max, actually they're still doing pretty badly, according to the latest Consumer Reports. 27th of 34.
why not the LS2LS7? 4:55PM (11/17/2008)
The harsh reality that the US (and Big 3) don't have the market cornered on labor problems comes smashing down.
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bh 4:56PM (11/17/2008)
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/all/2004/2004_10best_mechanics_tales_10best_cars+t-rear_engines+page-2.html
Go to the second anecdote, "Message from the UAW."
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Crackberry Addict 6:41PM (11/17/2008)
lmfao!!!!!!!!!!! great story, thanx! :)
gslippy 5:02PM (11/17/2008)
May be "engineered like no other car in the world", but maybe not built that way.
Didn't MB just receive an award for their new 7-speed AT?
But seriously, I don't understand the linkage between the alleged sabotage and non-MB service shops receiving work on [presumably] new MB cars. I wouldn't be taking my new MB with these kinds of faults to Joe's Garage; I'd be going back to MB for warranty repairs.
As for scratched paint, I wouldn't be purchasing the car to begin with, and I'd be surprised if dealers would accept them. And fake liquids in brake lines wouldn't even work. The boiling point would be so low that the brakes would immediately become spongy, and back TO THE DEALER I would go.
I smell a rat with these allegations.
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bh 5:06PM (11/17/2008)
It seems that the way it worked is that Mercedes noticed the problems before the cars were shipped to dealers and local repair places had a contract to fix production errors.